Molded foam interior automobile components typically consist of a foam layer, such as polyurethane foam between an outer thin decorative vinyl skin and a rigid plastic insert on the back side thereof. For such articles, the thin vinyl skin is first formed in a slush molding process, and then manually placed in a retainer mold, wherein a liquid polyurethane is poured through an inlet opening formed in the mold and the rigid insert into the predetermined cavity above the thin vinyl skin, to leave a space therebetween for the liquid polyurethane to foam and expand between the vinyl skin and the insert in the usual manner.
It is well known in the manufacture of molded automobile instrument panels to use die blocks of predetermined shapes in the mold at selected locations coinciding with locations on the foam article being molded where openings, such as air conditioning outlets, are to be formed on the finished product.
Heretofore, where die blocks have been included in mold assemblies they have been rigidly secured therein, resulting, at times, in wrinkling or bridging of the typical vinyl skin, due to expansion or contraction occurring between die blocks during the foam molding process, or due to variations in tolerances in different slush molds used to form the vinyl skins prior to their being mounted in the retainer mold.